One woman's never-ending battle for health, fitness, and the natural way.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Post With Some Numbers

More numbers than usual, I dare say, but not too many numbers.

Yesterday I earned 3 points for myself. I was lacking in meditation and intuitive eating. Basically, I engaged in the habit that I'm really trying to break, which is mindlessly eating while on the computer. It's just so easy to eat 8 dried peach halves that way. Plus slice number 2 of raw vegan banana-cocoa pie. Plus 6 squares of dark chocolate. You get the idea. If I had been honestly hungry, I would have eaten everything with no hard feelings, but since I wasn't paying any attention to my fullness or engaging in mindful eating, I totally lost that point.

Here's where the artificiality of the scale comes in to play: Tuesday morning I weighed 150.5 pounds. Yesterday it was 149.75, and this morning I was 149.0, even after yesterday evening's sweetness extravaganza. It all has to do with my hydration levels.

Eating more calories than usual will not translate into a huge weight gain. It just doesn't work that way. A pound of food doesn't turn into a pound of fat. Even an additional 3500 calories doesn't turn into a pound of fat, because your body will 1) use calories to digest the extra food and 2) increase your metabolism to deal with the increased load. Overfeeding studies have shown this time and again. However, every body is different in how it handles the extra food. Some bodies might really crank up the heat while others will store more fat. Two bodies at the exact same weight can have very different metabolisms.

I spent 38 minutes on the treadmill this morning. After 2 minutes' walk at 4.0 mph, I started in on the 3, 2, 1 intervals. First 5-min block was at 6.2, 6.5, and 6.8 mph simply because I was psyching myself out. Then I ran at 6.3, 6.6, and 6.9 mph for the next four 5-min blocks, and it worked out just fine. I even spent an extra 20 seconds running at 6.9 mph at the very end because, well, it felt good. Total distance was something over 3.5 miles in 38 minutes.

Very happy the way that I've been able to build up my distance and stamina. 4 miles of constant jogging on the trail, through inclines and declines? Fabulous! The consistency of training is a significant factor. It's reached the point where it would take a major intervening force for me to not hit the gym before work every morning, simply because my schedule is organized such that it's easier to do so than to not.